


some coincidences are deliberate

by solstices



Category: GOT7, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Drunken Shenanigans, M/M, Meet-Cute, also ft. youngjae's boxers and pants, but not rly cute bc jimin is drunk and smelly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 17:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6386140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solstices/pseuds/solstices
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>jaebum meets park jimin for the first time at a college party passed out in jackson wang's bathtub, and thinks he's kind of cute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	some coincidences are deliberate

**Author's Note:**

> ???? id k ? but also for meah who only had to say 'omg do it' when i said i wanted to try writing jb/jimin
> 
> if you squint you can find other ships in this

the moment jaebum steps in through the threshold of the house, he’s already thinking about when he gets to leave. there’s already a flimsy excuse set at the tip of tongue and he mentally schedules the hasty ‘sorry got tired couldn’t stay long, hbd’ to go jackson’s way at around 11pm. he only feels mildly apologetic because it’s finals week and he has Things To Do when he gets home. 

so it doesn’t make sense that it’s already well beyond midnight and jaebum is still nursing a red solo cup (the very same one he was given when he’d ambled on into the kitchen a couple of hours ago) in his hands. he’s seated next to jinyoung who’s asleep and waiting for all this to wrap up so he can help jackson clean up. but that isn’t for another few hours from now and jaebum isn’t about to stick around for that. 

he shakes jinyoung lightly, who stirs once to nudge him away. jaebum hardly resists the urge to roll his eyes. 

“i’m heading out,” he informs him, and jinyoung acknowledges him by a grunt and rolling over to tuck himself into the armrest of the couch. 

he gets up from his seat and winds his way through the throngs of people, wondering idly how jinyoung can sleep so soundly right in the middle of all this heat and all this noise, but chalks it up to stressing out about his current poetics module and the not-so offhanded promise he’d made about still being here in the morning. jaebum had made no such commitment and he’s greeted jackson in person, so it’s more than alright for him to bow out now. 

before he goes, he makes a quick trip to the bathroom, deciding to forego stop overs on the drive home. it’s not easy trying to concentrate on driving so late at night when you’ve gotta go. he finds jackson’s bedroom easily, comforted by the fact that the room is off-limits and that he should be able to go about his business undisturbed. (that and the line for the hallway bathroom made him want to cringe; he hopes that it’s not a couple making out holding up the line). 

he twists the doorknob to the bathroom and is about to pull it open but stops just short of doing so when he hears a loud thump from inside and a soft moan. 

jaebum steps back, shocked and a little bit offended. because the number one rule at jackson house parties is that the bedroom is off-limits. the only people who have full permission to go inside are his very close friends, but the only ones allowed to desecrate this semi-sacred space is jackson himself–and mark, probably- but jaebum doesn’t want to think about that right now- although he does kind of hope that it’s them and not some stranger. 

he swallows thickly, conflicting feelings pooling at his stomach. that and he really needs to pee. 

jaebum pulls at the door and is surprised to find the person inside alone and fully clothed. 

“uh—” he stammers, and the stranger doesn’t look up from where his head is lolled on top of the bathtub’s corner. his legs are spread out along the expanse of it, ripped dark jeans clinging to his skin, a little wet. his white shirt is no different. it looks like somebody had started cleaning him up but had done a terrible job of doing so. he frowns, feeling for the poor guy asleep in jackson wang’s bathtub. 

“excuse me?” he tries this time. and the person moves a little, but if he’s as drunk as he looks, then jaebum knows his body must feel like lead and the last thing he’d be doing is welcome him into the bathroom. 

but jaebum has no time for pleasantries and awkwardly trying to get this guy to move. there is no moving for this guy of his own volition, jaebum knows as much. so he takes matters into his hands. “matters” being one brown-haired, wet clothed, college student. 

 _he’s kind of cute._ jaebum finds himself thinking when they’re in close proximity.

he’s carrying him bridal-style outside of the bathroom. he considers the bed at first, but knows jackson wouldn’t appreciate that being wet when he stumbles into the room later (if he does at all), so he sets him down gently on the carpeted floor, brushing wet strands of hair away from his face. at the same time the door to the bedroom opens wide and some guy with dyed gray hair is about to rush in, saying, “jimin i—” 

he stops by the threshold staring at them for a long moment and then frowns. jaebum wants to ask if he knows the guy passed out on jackson’s bedroom floor and maybe if he knows anything about him being passed out earlier in the bathtub but jaebum really, really needs to go so he sends a nod along the gray haired guy’s way and rushes back into the bathroom to relieve himself. 

he washes his hands when he’s done, checks himself out in the mirror and exits the bathroom. he’s trying to decide if he’s going to sleep first or get some work done on his project when he gets home but is stalled by bathtub guy still on the floor and the bedroom door closed with no gray haired stranger in sight. 

jaebum’s eyebrows draw together and he sits by bathtub guy, lightly trying to shake him awake by the shoulder. 

“hey,” he starts, but bathtub guy will not budge. he wonders briefly if he’d died while he was inside the bathroom (and if maybe gray haired stranger had anything to do with that) but finds that he’s still breathing when he checks for a pulse and puts his ear close to bathtub guy’s mouth. 

the door swings open a second time and it’s the owner of the room himself. 

“oh, there you are!” jaebum lifts his head, wonders why jackson had been looking for him. 

“no, not you.” jackson goes on with a little laugh and jaebum shoots him a pointed glare. “jimin.” jackson informs him, gesturing to bathtub guy. “but you too, i guess. if you brought your car.” 

jaebum’s eyebrows shoot up. “i did bring a car, but what does that have to do with bathtu- jimin. he’s jimin, right?” 

jackson nods. he looks a little tipsy, cheeks a little pink, but he’s still good on his feet and jaebum finds that that’s the least of his concerns right now. 

“park jimin. joonie’s friend. had a little too much to drink. he asked to take him in here to clean up a bit, left, got distracted. now he thinks he lost him.” he breathes out another laugh. 

“that still doesn’t answer my question,” 

jackson just waves him off and jaebum would be slightly more offended if it wasn’t his birthday. 

“i was getting there hyung, be patient.” jaebum makes a face at him but doesn’t say any more. 

“anyway. this friend needs a ride home. i was gonna do it myself but i’ve had too much to drink and—” 

“no.” 

“—you’re here!” 

“no, jackson.” he scrubs a hand over his face, takes one look at park jimin sound asleep on the floor, and wants to curl in on himself because fuck it if his resolve is going to crumble right now. 

“please,” jackson pouts. actually. pouts at him. the audacity. and he hazards another glance at jimin, who scrunches his face up a little at the sound of jackson’s voice and it’s so cute. it’s cute and he needs help and jaebum isn’t a bad person and this a formula for disaster but he’s a grown man and he can deal with this. he’ll be fine. he just needs to drop park jimin off and be on his merry way. this is jackson practically giving him the viable and less jerk-like reason to leave early. 

so sighs and gives in, says, “fine. i’ll bring him home.”  

“thank you!” jackson pipes up enthusiastically, smiling bright and wide. “i’ll help you haul him up to your car.” 

 

jackson had insisted he’d be the one to piggyback dead weight to spare jaebum, but in all honesty, jaebum wouldn’t have minded. he thinks he catches a glimpse of a gray fringe on their way out, but doesn’t think much of it when they reach his car. it doesn’t take long to get jimin strapped in to the passenger’s seat, jackson does it while he jogs on over to the driver’s side. 

he rolls the window down on jimin’s side. 

“take care!” jackson smiles again, “and thanks again, hyung. i owe you one on behalf of joon-ah. and jimin too probably.” 

jaebum shakes his head. “it’s cool. i’ll text you when i’ve dropped him off.” 

jackson nods. there’s a muffled sound coming from the general direction of jackson’s front door. “that’s my cue,” jackson says, and with a little flair goes on, “my crowd awaits.” 

jaebum huffs out a laugh despite himself and rolls the window up. he gives park jimin another once over (something he hasn’t been able to keep himself from doing since he’d first opened the bathroom door). the car’s airconditioner is set to low but the poor guy starts shivering lightly, hands coming up his grip his arms. 

jaebum sighs, slips his jacket off and leans over to the passenger’s side to drape it over jimin’s shoulders, in front of him. he tucks it in behind jimin, and smiles when he settles into what little warmth it could provide. he rights himself on his own seat, buckles his own seat belt, and drives. 

 

it’s fifteen minutes into the drive; there’s no traffic and the radio is doing a good job of playing music he actually likes. jimin is still sound asleep, save for the occasional stirring when he switches and tries for a more comfortable position. it’s all good until a startling realization hits jaebum. 

he has no idea where park jimin lives. 

but, he thinks, that’s easy enough to solve. 

he calls jackson and it rings twice, thrice, four times- but he doesn’t pick up. he tries mark who might be with him, and then jinyoung who was, maybe, awake by now and could go look for him, goes through all his friends who might still be sober (and might still be there) but he gets nothing. 

jaebum frowns, feeling a little abandoned, a little lost. 

“what am i going to do with you?” he mutters under his breath, hazardng a look at jimin when the stoplight turns red. jimin does that cute nose scrunching thing he’d done earlier. he shakes his head and nuzzles into jaebum’s jacket. 

jaebum smiles, unbidden. 

the light turns green, and he drives home. 

 

he finds that it’s much easier to haul jimin up from behind his knees, holding him by the torso, so he carries him that way into his apartment complex. he gets a funny look from one of the residents still milling about late at night but jaebum just tips his head respectfully with a soft, “good evening.” 

he’s out the elevator and into his unit not long after, arms a little numb now because jimin isn’t exactly the lightest person on earth. 

he sets him down on the small couch in his livingroom slash kitchen, cushioning his head with a throw pillow. nora slips out of his bedroom and circles his legs by way of greeting. he smiles down at her, picking her up and silently thanking her for the way she relents into being lifted. 

she peers curiously at jimin sleeping on his couch. 

“we should let him rest, yeah?” she meows back at him as if to say ‘sure, whatever.’ 

jaebum sets her back down and she jumps up the coffee table and then to the couch where she settles by the space near jimin’s feet, curling around into herself. 

jaebum looks at jimin, his clothes have dried out a bit, but they’re still a little damp. he makes his way to the closet in his bedroom, finds an old light blue cotton shirt and a pair of boxers that might actually be youngjae’s. his next stop is the bathroom, where he grabs a small towel and basin he didn’t know he owned up until that moment, and fills it with water. 

he returns to the couch and pulls the coffee table up closer so he can sit on it while he changes jimin into something more comfortable. nora lifts her head up briefly at the sound, but doesn’t do much more than swish her tail and watch quietly. 

he gets jimin’s shirt off, isn’t surprised to see a toned body underneath, but is a little stunned at the mismatch between all that and his face. jaebum pushes less than savory thoughts about it back, taking the wet cloth and finishing up where whoever had tried to clean him up back at jackson’s had failed to do so. 

jimin’s still mostly dead weight and jaebum struggles to hold him up and get the shirt on properly when he’s done. but he manages to somehow, pulling it down and smoothing it out. he moves to unbuckle his belt, but jimin finally shows some sign of life, lifting his head and opening his eyes a fraction. 

he says something that jaebum doesn’t quiet catch, but jimin’s smaller hands are on jaebum’s as if to stop him. 

“what was that?” jaebum tries, and jimin shakes his head, mumbles, “that’s bad.” 

jaebum flushes, cheeks heating up and the tips of his ears pink. he lets out a shaky breath and licks his lips. 

“i’m just- i’m not- god,” he pulls back and covers his face to collect himself. 

“your pants smell like puke,” he says, straight to the point, face still covered by a hand. he’s not sure if jimin has the capacity to register as much properly because his eyes are closed again and his head is resting against the pillow once more. 

“sorry,” jimin says, soft. he tries to undo his belt on his own, and jaebum has to try and not think about all this too much because he’s a good person. 

“s’okay,” jaebum replies, even if he doubts jimin really understands what’s going on. jimin falls back asleep again as he weakly tries to shimmy out of his pants. when he’s still and breathing evenly, jaebum pulls the rest of it off and slips the boxers that he’d found on him. 

he gathers the clothes in his hands, cringing at the smell and he makes his way to his small laundry room. jaebum gets out of his own clothes himself, throws everything into the hamper and resolves to do it when the sun’s up. 

there’s some freshly laundered pajamas still folded on top of the washing machine and he changes into them. closing the door behind him, he peers at the couch once more, finds that jimin is shaking a little in his sleep, turned toward the backrest of the sofa. 

he frowns and heads for his bedroom. he pulls the duvet off, takes one of his pillows, and returns to the livingroom. nora moves to the armrest as though she were giving jaebum space to do his thing. 

jaebum drapes the duvet over jimin and switches the throw pillow for one of the softer ones from his bedroom, cradling the back of jimin’s head with a steady hand. he lays it back down gently, brushing the hair away from jimin’s face again. he tucks jimin into the blanket, and has to steel himself from kissing a complete stranger on the forehead. because, that’s weird, jaebum, we don’t do that. nora seems to catch on, staring at him with her head tilted, and her tail still swishing behind her as she quietly judges him from her perch.

“good night,” he tells them both, as he stands up and pushes the coffee table back into place. he’s about to enter his bedroom, when he hears a soft, “’night” slurred back at him. 

he breathes a quiet laugh, and decides to leave the door open while he sleeps. 

 

jaebum wakes up to the light of sun and a person awkwardly hovering by his bedroom door. he sits up abruptly, caught by surprise and the stranger’s eyes widen like he is too. 

“uhm—” the stranger starts, unsure and looking like he’s scared for his life. jaebum shakes his head, and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. when they focus properly and he gets a second, better, look at the stranger, he remembers. 

park jimin. right. 

“park jimin,” he says, his voice coming out rough from sleep. 

“y-yeah,” jimin stammers out softly, and he winces because he’s probably hungover out of his mind and any sound between now and late into the afternoon will sound like a bomb dropping within earshot. 

he doesn’t know how to continue from there, but knows he has to. either of them. both of them. jaebum’s still too sleep-addled to think properly, but jimin looks so scared and uncertain, he feels compelled to make it go away. even it’s likely that he’s the direct cause. 

but it’s jimin who speaks up first, chewing on his lower lip when he asks him, “did we uhm—you know,” 

jaebum takes another long moment to process this, and then when it finally clicks, he blurts out a, “what,” and then a, “no!” cringes when jimin does too. 

too loud. 

“sorry,” he mutters after the fact. he’s not sure if it’s because he doesn’t have the affirmative for jimin or because he’d raised his voice without meaning to. could be both, but tamps down on the notion of the other with some effort. 

jimin mulls over this information, thumbing the fabric of the shirt that jaebum can finally see is a little too long and too wide for him, coming up short on his thighs. he forgets for awhile that jimin’s wearing youngjae’s boxers underneath. the thought is a little off-putting but he’s thankful for it because the last thing he wants right now is to look like a fool. 

“oh,” is all that comes out of jimin’s mouth, and if jaebum had been mistaken, he might be pouting a little but he can’t be too sure. 

“yeah,” jaebum finds himself agreeing. 

jimin looks up at him, straight at him, for the first time since last night and jaebum does to. there’s an idle half minute they spend just staring at each other, until jimin breaks it by smiling, a little bit of teeth, and his eyes coming closed into crescents when he laughs. 

jaebum struggles to gather the remnants of his resolve because, out of all the things jimin has done since he’d found him in that bathtub, that definitely has to be the cutest. and he kind of maybe wants to see that again. more often. 

“sorry,” jimin says again and jaebum can probably tell by now that the apologizing is a bad habit. 

jaebum shakes his head. “it’s fine. you’re fine.” 

“i’m fine?” jimin shoots him a puzzled look. 

jaebum’s brain to mouth filter isn’t working properly yet and he has to internally kick himself because his explanation doesn’t sound any better. not when all he has to say is, “you’re cute.”  

jimin breathes out another laugh, “i’m fine because i’m cute?” 

and jaebum just gives up at this point (because he’d gotten another laugh out of him), shrugs, and says, “sure, why not.” 

jimin’s smile wanes the longer he stands there and jaebum mirrors the expression too, asks him, “what’s wrong?” 

but the look on jimin’s face goes from a little unsure to curious, leaning against the door frame now as he says, “still have no idea what went down last night.” 

“i mean, aside from the part about us not actually fucking, but well,” 

jaebum chokes on his own spit and coughs, he’s not sure if he finds the crass language endearing yet, but he kind of wants to find out. 

“i found you in jackson’s bathtub, but i have no idea what happened before that.” he tries, glancing at jimin again, whose mouth is set to an unreadable line that jaebum wants to ask about, maybe kiss into a smile. he isn’t sure yet. 

“i can tell you over breakfast though?” 

jimin looks up, a little taken aback by the offer. his features soften somewhat, and then he smiles, something private about the look he throws at jaebum's general direction when he says, “okay.”  

jaebum takes this as his cue to get out of bed. he opens his closet door as he off-handedly offers his shower to jimin. 

“you can go ahead, i’m sure there’s something in here that’ll fit.” 

there’s another okay from jimin and the sound of him shuffling about in the other room trying to find the bathroom with nora probably tailing after him. he hasn’t sneezed all morning, which probably means he’s not allergic to pet dander. 

jaebum smiles to himself as he rummages through his clothes, finds a pair of pants that are probably youngjae’s, and hopes jimin will like his favorite cafe down the street. 

 

if jaebum chooses a sweater of his for jimin to wear, it’s really not on him because jimin looks _nice_ in his clothes. 

jimin plays with the ends his sleeves. he’s sitting across from jaebum and they’d gone from proper introductions to trying to piece together last night’s events (most of which, at least the ones that had taken place before he’d literally been dropped into the bathtub by none another than jackson’s friend ‘joonie’, had yet to return to him completely). but jaebum doesn’t really mind, and jimin says he doesn’t either. not much. 

jaebum’s slicing through a pancake when jimin asks him, “is this a date?” 

he nearly drops his fork. 

“uh—” 

“i mean, it doesn’t have to be—” 

“—it could…?” jaebum trails off, licking his lips, and setting the fork down gingerly before something terrible happens with it. 

jimin smiles at that, and he feels that stupid swoop in his stomach that hopefully isn’t indigestion. 

“yeah, okay.” jimin says, “it could.” 

 

it’s thirty missed calls, what looks like fifteen unread text messages, and lunch with jimin later that day (because he’d insisted to pay for breakfast and had lingered too long by the door when he’d originally intended to go home, so jaebum had no choice but to turn off his already defunct brain to mouth filter again and ask about his lunch plans) when jaebum finally remembers that he hadn’t texted jackson about dropping jimin off. which is a little justified, all things considered. 

he pulls up kakao and jackson’s window, typing in a hasty, ‘sorry, i’m busy rn. on a date. belated hbd tho’ and ignores the call back he gets from him demanding answers.

when jackson finally settles for texting him a, 'is that why jimin isn't home yet ??' he replies with a quick 'yes', feeling satisfied with himself as he pockets his phone.   

**Author's Note:**

> i just really felt like writing a v short jb/jimin thing bc ~dynamics but then 1k words later this happened. originally a prompt fill for: imagine your otp first meeting at a party and person a drives a drunk b home and b keeps asking to see a again. but uh, it's right up until 'drives a drunk b home' lol 
> 
> kudos comments r loved!! u can yell at me @ gukjins on tumblr also. esp if u weirdly like this ship too


End file.
